It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **M. Sean Molley **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Brian Chen **
Bryce Herdt **
Peter Abide *
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #110

PENT WORDS 22 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

Use the clues to the right of each grid (which are provided in no particular order) to fill it with 5-letter words (the same ones reading across and down). Click the image to enlarge it.The answer is a proper name.

This puzzle was written for patron M. Sean Molley, who supports me at the $20+ level on Patreon and is therefore entitled to suggest one word or phrase every month for me to incorporate into a puzzle. His May 2016 suggestion is used here.

Shade in some cells in the grid below, and fill the rest with letters to form words left-to-right and top-to-bottom, crossword style. All words are Scrabble-legal (see scrabble.merriam.com); however, most of the words in the intended solution should be familiar.

There is no “final answer” to this puzzle; just send your completed grid.

* In what city is the Sharif University of Technology?
* Patron Puzzle #14, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a pair of Codewords puzzles. Can you decipher these crosswords?

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **M. Sean Molley **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Brian Chen **
Bryce Herdt **
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #109

FOXGERYPTICS 4 (hint)

As of this writing, 11 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #110

PENT WORDS 22

(click here for a PDF version)This puzzle was written for patron M. Sean Molley, who supports me at the $20+ level on Patreon and is therefore entitled to suggest one word or phrase every month for me to incorporate into a puzzle. His April 2016 suggestion is used here.

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **M. Sean Molley **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Brian Chen **
Bryce Herdt **
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #108

HEX PATHFINDER 2 (hint)

As of this writing, 11 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

These puzzles are based on Gryptics. Gryptics seem like a neat concept to me; however, they are sullied by the main difference between the difficulty levels being how many randomly-placed letters are given at the start. (They're not even symmetrical ones, and even the hardest puzzles have them.) Apparently, Les Foeldessy didn't succeed in getting his puzzles to the large audience he wanted to, because the website gryptics.com no longer exists.

Insert a single letter in each space of each grid so that each grid's five rows and five columns spells a word from left to right or top to bottom (including the letters outside the grid).

Arrange the letters in the shaded spaces to form the final answer, an eight-letter word.

I have had many, many, many years of experience with puzzles, both solving them and writing them. With this has come the ability to form opinions on puzzles and hopefully explain them with well thought-out prose to help other people form their own opinions; this is why there are 12 previous volumes of Grant's Review Corner. However, they are also very sparsely written: the last installment was over a year ago, and the one before that was 16 months prior! The primary reason is that I don't want to be inundated with requests to review things. However, formulating an opinion, dissecting it, and working out how to express it is a good exercise, so when I recently got a request to review an iOS app, I decided to do it.

Disclaimer: I was given a review copy of this app, normally $1.99, for free. While getting review copies of things is par for the course in the world of reviewing, this is a first for Grant's Review Corner.

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **M. Sean Molley **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Bryce Herdt **
Brian Chen **
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #107

HEX PATHFINDER (hint)

As of this writing, 11 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, a 7-letter word.

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano **M. Sean Molley **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Bryce Herdt **
Brian Chen *
Lance Nathan **
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #106

SECTION SIX 10 (hint)

As of this writing, 11 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, a 7-letter word.

Support me on Patreon!

If you enjoy my weekly word puzzles, please consider supporting me monthly on Patreon. You'll get sneak peeks at this blog's puzzles, and exclusive puzzles just for patrons. You can support for whatever amount per month fits your budget. Thank you!

Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

PLEASE DO:* commission me! I make good puzzles!* become my patron on Patreon! You'll get early access to my word puzzles!* print these puzzles out to solve them on paper* copy and paste these puzzles into your preferred image editor, and solve them there* e-mail me (glmathgrant@gmail.com; I can nudge you towards a solution if you're stuck, or interact with you in other ways)* post non-spoiler comments directly on the blog (i.e., "I like what you did with the 3's", "The logic in the upper left corner was astounding")* share these puzzles with friends and link to this blog

PLEASE DON'T:* spoil the solution in the comments section for all others to see* post completely irrelevant comments (including comments consisting completely of punctuation)* claim these puzzles as your own* make money off of these puzzles without my permission

What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.